Biographies of Women Mathematicians

Welcome to the web site for biographies of women in mathematics. These pages are part
of an on-going project at Agnes Scott College
in Atlanta, Georgia, to
illustrate the numerous achievements of women in the field of mathematics.
Here you can find biographical essays or comments
on the
women mathematicians profiled on this site, as well as additional resources about women in mathematics. Each time this page is reloaded, a randomly selected photo is displayed to the left (if Javascript is enabled). Click on the image to go to the profile of that woman.

We also
welcome contributions of biographical information or essays from those outside Agnes
Scott College. If you are interested in contributing an essay, please send your
contribution to the email address below. Comments, suggestions, or
corrections can also be sent to this address.

The AWM Research Symposium 2015 will be held at the University of Maryland, College Park, April 11-12, 2015. It will feature four plenary talks by Maria Chudnovsky, Ingrid Daubechies, Jill Pipher, and Katrin Wehrheim, as well as 14 special sessions on a wide range of topics in pure and applied mathematics, poster sessions for graduate students and recent PhDs, networking events, a jobs panel, and a banquet. For more information, see the Symposium website.

The 2015 Class of the Fellows of the American Mathematical Society includes seven women among the total of 63 Fellows. They are Kristin Lauter, Gordana Matic, Irina Mitrea, Andrea Nahmod, Brooke Shipley, Christina Sormani, and Irena Lasiecka. See the complete list from the AMS.

Sylvia Bozeman and Rhonda Hughes, founders of the EDGE program, will be presented with a Presidential Award from the Association for Women in Mathematics at the AWM Research Symposium 2015, to be held at the University of Maryland on April 11-12, 2015.

The International Congress of Women Mathematicians 2014 (ICWM 2014)
was successfully held on August 12th and 14th in Seoul, Korea with
over 500 attendees representing more than 50 countries. Information about ICWM 2014 including the program book and the photos
of the attendees of the meeting can be found on the website
http://www.icwm2014.org.

The African Mathematical Union Commission for Women and Mathematics in
Africa (AMUCWMA) 2015 Conference / Workshop will take place at Bandari
College in Mombasa, Kenya from July 16-18, 2015. The theme of
the conference/workshop is "Women in Mathematics for Social Change and
Sustainable Livelihoods". The conference is supported by CIMPA and is
intended for African women mathematicians and women postgraduate
students in Mathematical Sciences in Africa.
For detailed information, contact Prof. Marie Françoise Ouedraogo, President of the AMUCWMA (omfrancoise@yahoo.fr).

Congratulations to Maryam Mirzakhani, Professor of Mathematics at Stanford University, for becoming the first woman to win a Fields Medal!

In March 2013 the Executive Committee of the International Mathematical Union (IMU) approved the
establishment of an Advisory Group for Women in Mathematics, charged
with creating and overseeing a section of the IMU website entitled
Women in Mathematics (WiM). Opportunities for women vary widely from
country to country and a main aim is to enhance the participation of
women in all mathematical communities. The new WiM site
launched at the International Congress of Women Mathematicians
on August 12th just prior to the International Congress of Mathematics, at the
address http://www.mathunion.org/wim/. The site includes information about organizations, people, events, resources and initiatives of interest to women mathematicians world-wide.

The third European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad took place in Antalya, Turkey, April 10-16, 2014. The competition, inspired by the China Girls' Math Olympiad, is similar in style to the International Mathematical Olympiad, with two tests taken on consecutive days. Participating countries send teams consisting of their strongest four high-school-age, female mathematicians. The girls who represented the United States, Danielle Wang, Alicia Weng, Victoria Xia, and Rachel Zhang, took second place (behind Ukraine). Read more about their accomplishments in the online article from the June/July issue of MAA Focus (page 11).

AWM Biographies Contest

To increase awareness of women's ongoing contributions to the mathematical
sciences, the Association for Women in Mathematics sponsors an essay
contest for biographies of contemporary women mathematicians and
statisticians in academic, industrial, and government careers. This
contest is open to students in the following categories: Grades 6-8,
Grades 9-12, and College Undergraduate. At least one winning submission will be chosen from each category. Winners will receive a prize, and their essays will be published online at the AWM website. Additionally, a grand prize winner will have his or her submission published in the AWM Newsletter. For more information and to see the results of past Essay Contests, go to http://www.awm-math.org/biographies/contest.html.

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